The present invention relates to stationary fitness equipment, more particularly, to exercise apparatus which encourage and train a user to alternately apply the full force of the user's body weight on a downwardly moving foot platform while simultaneously removing the load on the opposite upwardly moving foot platform.
Typically, prior art dependent climber and stepper exercise apparatus, use a dependent mechanism inherent with a given stepper/climber design in a manner which results in minimal calorie burn. In this respect, the lower calorie burn occurs while the user is essentially balancing his weight between the right and left foot platforms through the dependent mechanism. The dependent mechanism may, for example, include a cable connecting right and left foot platforms, and where the cable is routed over a central top pulley. In another example, the foot members may be driven by a crank such that as a left foot platform moves down, the opposite side diametrically opposite crank, moves the right foot platform upward. In both examples, the user's weight is generally balanced between the right and left foot platforms so that each of the user's legs only bears one half of the weight of the user while exercising.
Generally, the primary variables for increasing the intensity of a workout using prior art dependent climber and stepper exercise apparatus, are to either increase speed or increase resistance (disregarding adjustment of inclination). This is because with a dependent stepper/climber exercise apparatus, the user is more directly coupled to the resistance system. However, it should be noted that if the user simply balances the right and left feet against the foot platforms during operation of the exercise apparatus, then any associated display indicating calorie burn rate must be calibrated to account for this balancing expectation or the data displayed will be erroneous.
Conversely, with an independent stepper/climber, a decrease of resistance results in an increase in calorie burn because the user is forced to exercise more rapidly therefore performing a more aerobic workout. With an independent stepper/climber, the right and left sides are isolated, and an increase in downward resistance of an independent stepper/climber will simply result in a slow, and somewhat easy descent of the foot platform(s).